Gold

Title: Gold 

Author: Chris Cleave

Publisher: Simon and Schuster (2012)

Genre(s): Realistic Fiction, Sport, Fiction

Length: 324 pages

Synopsis:  Zoe and Kate have been rivals and competitors, bitter enemies and the best of friends throughout their entire careers.  They're Olympic level cyclists who've spent their lives training with the goal of gold always on the horizon.  But now, with her daughter Sophie fighting cancer and her final shot at an Olympic medal coming up, Kate has to make a decision about where her priorities really lie.  Zoe is forced to acknowledge that the effort she's poured into her training since childhood will no longer matter after the next Olympic games.  Facing pivotal points in their lives, will they find themselves once again fierce rivals or the friend that each so desperately needs?

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion: This book was one of those stay-up-until-two-in-the-morning  It's not really a book about sport.  Yes, cycling happens, but it's not what this book is about.  It's heart and soul and breath and body can be found in the little cast of characters that plays out their stories in these pages.  The people of Gold are vividly constructed, and their stories interwoven and poignant in their own ways.  There are no saints and sinners in this book, just people coping with what their lives have handed them in the best ways they know how.  I loved hearing Sophie's story from her own point of view, and watching the pasts and presents of each character unfurl from multiple perspectives.  There are twists and turns and unexpected revelations that would have kept me reading even with less fully realized characters, but Cleave's craft was evident in every aspect of this novel's construction.  From my previous experience with Cleave's work (The Other Hand, published in the U.S. as Little Bee), I had high expectations, and they were completely fulfilled.